Damn kids, with their iPhones and whatnot, always carrying them around. For a teen in California, though, it – and a roll bar –- saved his life.

Thomas Dwelley was out for a drive in his ‘95 Mustang Convertible, enjoying a twisty bit of road above Santa Barbara one night before his high school's football game. He wasn't drinking or texting, just having fun driving. That's when he drove off a 200-foot cliff, with that impact at the bottom crushing his Mustang severely. Amazingly, he survived.

But it took rescue crews almost an entire day to get to Thomas, according to a story by a local website. And were it not for the tracking device in his iPhone, his dad could have never located where the accident occurred.

According to the story, Thomas' parents couldn't get to him by phone and his father finally called AT&T to locate his iPhone. His dad drove to the somewhat remote place and saw skid marks, looked over the edge of the road and saw his son's car down below.

The Mustang was incredibly mangled after the crash, and Thomas had to have brain surgery but is otherwise OK. Crews said the rollbar probably prevented the outcome from being much worse. And now, Thomas told his high school friends that "Cars need to be taken seriously." Um, yeah.

Thomas' experience is being used as an example for all teen drivers and a reminder to stay safe. And he said his next car is going to be a Toyota. I only hope by Toyota he meant Scion FR-S, because that has a lot of air bags. And handles.